Degree vs Experience | Which is More Qualifying | Ep 069

So what does Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Oprah Winfrey, Am I supposed to be doing that now?

Yeah, go for it.  And Steve Jobs have 

in common. What do they have in 

common? They're all college dropouts. Oh, really? Or they didn't go to college. So it's either one of the two. And,  obviously, they're billionaires. Yeah. Right? So they're  extremely successful and famous. So What does that 

tell you? That tells you that poo poo on college.

Kind of, right? There is a time and a place for college, I think. Yeah. Thank you. We're gonna 

go. Hi guys! What's going on? So now we're 

live on all sides. Yeah, I'm gonna turn this 

off too. Video is  good on 

all sides. There we go. Okay, much 

better.  So essentially,  we're poo pooing on 

college today. Yeah. There's a time and a place for college.

There are a good thing. I didn't, I shouldn't have said that so bluntly. But, um, yeah, there's a, college is a, I went to college. I have a college degree. Me too. Do you have a college degree? I do. Is yours in what you're doing? Kind of. Yeah? Yeah. What's 

your degree in? Business Administration. Oh, yeah. But I went to college late in life.

Okay. You know, I didn't go to college straight out of high school. I joined the 

military. Oh, yeah, that's good. So you had an idea of what you 

wanted to do. Yeah, so I was a little, my mind was a little different when I started school. Yeah. We spoke about that a little earlier before this. Recording.  

Did you guys go to college?

We want to hear from you. Have you, did you go to college and now are you working or running a business and what your degree is in? 

That's the question of the day. Yeah. If you went to college, are you working in that field?  Are you working in what you were studying in 

college? Yeah.  I, mine is in business management.

So you are. I am. But you know what? I feel like I learned. Nothing in college that I actually was useful. 

Yeah, there's no better education than the school 

of hard knocks. No, there's not. And I think that we're in a society now where college is such a  like, Oh, in order to be somebody, you have to pay all of this.

It's a marketing thing. I feel like it's become this marketing thing. They're so smart in that. But yeah, in order to be somebody, you have to have a college degree. Yeah. And I think that that's true if you want to be a vet or if you want to be a doctor or if you want to be a lawyer, CPA, something that you need to go to college for.

But I think all these, I see all the time, all of these college graduates with communications degrees or marketing degrees or general business degrees, liberal arts. liberal arts degrees and then they graduate and they're like, okay, show me the money. I'm going to start at 150, 000 a 

year. What is a liberal arts degree?

Uh, politics? I don't know. I think so.  

Oh my God. I don't know. I think a liberal arts degree is when they show you where the safe 

room is. Oh, you guys tell us. What's a liberal, liberal arts degree? I don't know. That's a good question. 

I guess you learn your, it's all your general studies kind of 

stuff, right?

Yeah. What's up, Game Gear? He says, what's up? My Auntie Bones is watching. What's up? What's up, Auntie Bones? Yeah. Um, audio is good. Thank you. Yeah, we should be good now. Sorry, you guys. We kind of started without 

video. Hey. As long as you can hear us, that's really all that matters. Most of y'all are probably 

driving anyway.

Yeah, that's so true.  Okay, um, so, we decided that You don't need a degree unless you're gonna be in a specialty, right? Yeah So what's the alternative like since the big thing is to go to college and that's just what everybody does What's the alternative? What do you do instead? Oh my gosh, you're gonna be homeless. 

Yeah  

Yeah, yeah, well I'll tell you this I may not completely agree with missing needing a degree Right. But I totally, totally, totally am on board with education. Yes. Right. You should be educating yourself. Yes. So if you're, you know, let's just use the, the trades industry. If you're an electrician.  You gotta know what those wires do.

You gotta know how to read plans. Like, you gotta know how to read that stuff, and the only way to do it is by educating yourself in that field, in that process. Um, school doesn't necessarily teach you that, right? There's trade schools. Actually,  I backtrack. I think trade school is great. Yeah. Like, as an alternative to 

college, though. 

It's a different kind of college. A certification. Yeah, 

certification.  But it's education. Yeah. And I think that that's where we're going is that education is important, especially if you specialize in something, um, versus getting a degree that you're not going to utilize, but you spent thousands of dollars on cotton in college.

And then you're wondering how you're gonna pay that loan back. But you went to college for that.  And you're not looking for a job in that. Yeah. You know, so. 

And trade school, things like electricians and plumbers and concrete people, those are disappearing. Those skills are disappearing. And so when you go, number one, it's going to cost you way less.

And number two, when you graduate, you're going to have a job that's high paying already because it's in such need. Pretty 

guaranteed today. Yeah. Like, and you can make serious money in the trades field today 

and you can even run a business. You don't have to get a business degree to run a business. I mean, like I said earlier, I didn't learn anything in my business degree that I actually use in my 

business.

So true. I think when, especially when it comes to business, you learn as you go  

and you surround yourself with people that can help you in certain areas. So you don't have to know accounting. You surround yourself with an accountant, you don't have to know the legal part of it. You get a good lawyer. 

Yeah.

Absolutely.  You, you do that marketing. What is that thing called? Bales? Bales. You ever hear that acronym? No. Lauren, if who we're going to watch a video on soon, I don't know if you coined it, Lauren is, but you, you, that's an acronym that you share a lot and it's called, you need to have a, in your corner. If you're a business owner, a banker, an accountant, an insurance agent, a lawyer. 

And you need to know where your local SBDC is. Oh, that's good. Right? Those are the pillars of running a successful business. I love that. 

That's good stuff. B A 

I L 

S. Remember that. Yeah. B A I L S. All important. I mean, that's, I think there's certain skills, uh, we're a business podcast, right? So I think when it comes to business, there are definitely skills that are helpful.

You need to know the basics of budgeting. And accounting, like the basics of that, you need to know the basics of marketing. You need to know the basics of, you know, HR and leading people. I think that there are things like that, that are very important, but the amazing thing about our world today is all of that is so easily accessible without having to go to college.

For sure. Yeah.  Speaking of.  You ready for a plug? I'm ready. Thebusinessproject. com is doing a soft launch today. Boom. That's right. Yeah. Today's the day. It's the soft launch. Wow. This is exciting. It's still not ready. So we need your help going in there and just trying to break things. Break 

it. Yeah. But go in there and check it 

out.

Yeah. We're still, we still have so much content to add. There's like my computer is full of document after document and we've got lots of videos that are being edited. So we've got a lot of good stuff for you and it's going to be added in there over the next couple of weeks, but it's ready. You can go to www.

thebusinessproject. com. The link is also in the description and you can create a free account and you can go in there and try to break it. 

I highly recommend checking it out. I mean, any content that is helping you in your business where you can go in this one place and get. The majority of everything you need to be able to run your business.

I mean, that's a no brainer to go check out. And just like, um, what was I going to say? Something just like college or information, the industry changes, right? Information changes. So you have to constantly educate yourself. The business project is going to be constantly adding information to keep up with the changes.

So you want, um, something where you're going to go learn something that's actually teaching you current.  Stuff. Mm hmm. Then that's the place to go. Yeah. 

Yeah. Because by the time they write the curriculum in college, say you're going for marketing or, you know, digital marketing. By the time they write the curriculum, they get the curriculum passed, they put it in the schools, they teach the teachers on it.

It's like two years. I don't even know how long I'm just throwing yours out there and imagine look at how much Social media has changed in the last two years. Oh, yeah, and marketing in general has changed in the last two years So I feel like by using something like the business project or other online tools.

You're gonna spend your time getting the most Updated information. 

Yeah, it's as close to real time as you can get without being in it Yeah, 100%. I think that's amazing. 

Should we, should we hear from Lorneth with the BBB? Let's hear from Lorneth. Let's do it. Ms. Bales. Hopefully the video's working. We'll see. 

Hi, my name is Lorneth Peters, Director of Marketing and Communications at the Better Business Bureau, serving Middle Tennessee and Southern Kentucky.  We spend a lot of time cleaning, right? We clean our houses. We clean our kids rooms over and over again. We clean our cars. We even clean our desk,  but we forget one of the most crucial areas of our lives.

That's the digital part, right? We don't take time to actually do a digital makeover or clean up our digital spaces. So I have three cleaning. Um, tips for you today. First of all, lock it down. Make sure you are using passwords that are not easily uncovered. Right? So don't use 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. Make sure you use passwords that  The everyday person or even a scammer or hacker is unable to actually uncover.

Also, second thing you want to do is to clean up, right? Clean up your systems. Any updates that are needed, make sure you take the time to get those updates done. When something comes up on our iPhones that says it's time to update. Sometimes we get a little upset, but it is for our protection. So take the time if there are updates needed on your tablets, on your phones, on your computers, take the time to get those updated because it will protect you in the long run.

Third, last but not least, I'll always like to say, make sure you back it up. There's so many important things that we have as businesses on our devices that are not backed up. You want to make sure it's backed up. So just in case something happens with one device. You have it backed up on other devices and maybe in the cloud.

So those are the three tips as you continue to grow as a business and as you continue to protect yourself against scams. If you need to get in contact with us or me, send an email to us at info at go BBB dot org info at go BBB dot org. Until next time, take some time and do some digital cleaning. Talk to you soon. 

Oh, we're back. We're back. Alright. We're just having fun today. Instagram live for the first time and it's not connected to the computer, um, to like the whole thing. So they don't get to see the videos. So they get to see all the background of what we do when the videos are going on. So if we 

look cross eyed sometimes, because we're looking at another screen versus the one that we should be looking at.

Yeah. We're 

still talking to you, though. We are, yes. Lots of different areas. Alright, we got some people, um, YouTube is kicking it off. Usually Facebook is kicking it off, but YouTube is today, so Um, Auntie Bone said so many college students start out in one direction and then taking other required classes change their major several times.

Yes, that's so true. So much wasted time. I know when I was 18, I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life. I was still barely learning how to brush my teeth in the morning. 

Yeah, I still have, I have kids that are still in college and they're in the mid twenties. Wow. My kids. Yeah, because they changed majors, you know, and then it's like, okay, well now that's money that you're dishing out.

Um, and they prolonging your college career. But, you know, they realized that in the middle of their original path that that's not really what they wanted to do. So they changed it up  and they got older and they got older. So what were we saying before? That is like I'm a proponent.  Of you going to college later in life, if you choose to learn a little bit about what life experience is, my thing is join the military for two years, you know, and then travel the world, get out.

Military pays for your college when you do that, right? Yeah. For sure. Yeah. Well, the community pays for that. Yeah. But it's worth it. That's great. Yep. Yeah. Um, what's up, Faith? Watching us from Facebook.  Um, back up everything. She's talking about Lorna's great 

video. Oh. Yeah, that's some solid information.

Yeah. She always throws out some gems. She 

does. We're going to hear from Christina in just a little bit. We love Christina too. She's always got some good stuff. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. 

So.  Let's continue talking about education. Let's do it  These awkward silent moments, 

you know, we want to hear from you guys in the comments If you what are your thoughts on this?

Do you have a degree that you use? Do you recommend going straight out of high school into college? What are your thoughts about trade schools?  Like what is a good path? And I think I think It's different for everybody too. It is. Not everybody. 

Not everybody learns the same. Mm hmm. Not everybody is, you know, has it, will people mature differently or their, you know, their paths are just sometimes longer than the others.

So find out what it is. Find out what, you know who I like watching and who I like getting information from? Mike Rowe. Yeah, oh, he's 

awesome. He loves trade. He's a man's man. Yeah, he did dirty jobs. Yeah, mr. Dirty job. 

Yeah Yeah, like he's he's a such a proponent for trade schools because my god like if you see what these Trades programs and fields are out there and how much money somebody can make in the trades world is like why isn't enough people doing?

That people don't like to get dirty anymore today. 

They don't No, they want to graduate and sit at a desk and make 100, 000 

and work from home. Mm hmm They all want to work from home. Yeah, they all want to make 800, 000 a year sitting behind a desk doing zoom calls all day. Yeah 

You know one thing that we can talk about too is when you get older it's never too late I think that  We're in our 30s  

Yeah, you know what they say 40s are the new 30s 

and  And I think like I still don't know what I want to do. Honestly, yeah I just started the business that I'm in right now. I started six years ago in my 30s and  I don't know if this is what I want to do with my whole life.

So I think, I think that's a misconception too, is that you think when you're 18 years old that you have to plan out your whole path or know exactly what you want to do with your life and I don't think that's 

true.  I agree. You know, there's no straight path in life. You know, it's, it's a journey, you know, and if you look at a, if you look at a roadway.

There's no, there's no such thing as a straight direction from one point to the other. The road has to navigate different peaks and valleys, has to go around water. So that's what your life is going to look like. You're going to make decisions that didn't work here, but you're going to pivot. You're just going to go here.

The goal is to end up at the destination, right? How you get there. It  really 

determines your decisions and enjoy that journey to enjoy whether you go to college and we're not bad mouthing college again. I want to make sure that we're clear about that because if you decide to go to college, that's great too.

That might be your path and that you might get something from that because there are benefits from college to you learn how to be on a schedule. You learn how to hold yourself accountable. You learn. You make good friends. I mean, I think networking, networking, my best friend is, we met really in college and we're still friends like five years later.

But, um, I think that they're, what'd you say? It's a big mystery. I think that there are some benefits to to going to college, but I think our main point is to figure out your own path and don't do something just because you feel like it's the thing to do. And there are so many people as we opened up the podcast that are successful, that don't have a degree.

And, but they, the thing also that those people that you mentioned, I will say the thing that they have in common is that from what I've read about them, they all, Continue to educate themselves nonstop, 

nonstop, like your education. You should never think you know it all because there's always a change coming to your, into your industry, whatever you're doing.

So you have to continually be willing to building ready, willing and able to educate yourself like nonstop. I live reading. Magazines and watching YouTube videos of stuff in my industry, keeping my ear to the street because there's, there's always changes coming down the pike. And I want to be ready for that. 

They says, I love that you can get on the job training and be paid well while learning and beyond. Yeah, that's a good point too, is a lot of these trade schools when you're learning as an apprentice and doing all of your things, you can get paid while you learn. How cool would that be if you could go to get college and get paid while you learn?

Yeah, and actually beyond the job doing what you're graduating for, um, Justine said, I think it's important to listen to yourself. It's hard, especially right out of high school because you feel like you're having to decide things for the rest of your life. As you get older, you realize that life is pretty long and you're going to do it.

Go through different things. It's okay to not to have the answers. I wish I waited to go to college. That is so right It's okay not to have the answers. It is. Okay. Yeah, that's 

scary I think that's a question on failure. Yeah, you know people are scared to fail in life You know, they feel like they they're gonna let somebody down if they fail But in reality, it's a learning experience.

The failure that you go through is because you're journeying into a new area of life or era of life that you don't necessarily know. So you're gonna make mistakes and you'll be ready, willing and able to accept that. Learn from it. Grow from it and continue moving. 

Yeah, grow from it. That's good. Claybite, my Auntie Bone, says sometimes it's, she has a really good point.

It's good to volunteer in the field you think you might like. Learn quickly if it's for you or not. That's so, such a good thing. Yeah, I have a friend that I went to high school with that went to school to be a nurse. And put all of these, you know, cause you don't actually get into like the nursing part of nursing school until years into it.

And then she realized that she really hated the sight of blood. Oh, wow. And she couldn't do it.  So she had to, so she put all this time into all these classes and thinking this was going to be for her life. And then she would like pass out anytime they saw  blood. 

Good thing you're changing your mind because Well, why aren't you drawing blood from me if you're in the past?

I 

think that's something to learn from too, is being flexible. Like it's okay if you go down a path and you don't love it. 

Right. Be able to be ready, willing, able to pivot. Just like running a business, you have to be able to pivot, right? We spoke about that a little while ago. You know, don't be rigid on your decision, you know, and just constantly try at it knowing it's not for you.

Yeah. It's not, it's just gonna cause you unnecessary stress.  

What's up, Morgan? When I was in high school, I was set on being a lawyer. Then I interned at a law firm and immediately changed my mind. I love it. Yeah.  That was I think you're too sweet to be a lawyer. I think you picked a good career.

Everybody's innocent. Yes, yeah, yeah. Um, yes, this is good. Should we hear from Christina really quick?  Christina's got some good information. So if you're watching us on, um, Instagram, hold tight because you're not going to see the commercial, but we'll chitchat with you some extra special stuff. You guys, um, we will be right back.

We're going to hear from Christina. Thank you so much for tuning in to the business project. Hi everyone. I'm Christina Stubblefield and I'm here to share with business owners and entrepreneurs.  Do you know what to do if your website isn't working?  I want to shed a little light on this crucial issue that could make or break your digital success.

Your website is the foundation of your online presence. But what happens when disaster strikes? Without access to your website hosting, email server, or your domain name, you can be left stranded in a sea of digital chaos. But fear not, I have created a comprehensive guide to help you navigate those murky waters of digital ownership.

This downloadable PDF includes step by step instructions to make sure you have access to your digital kingdom and ensure You're never caught off guard. Take control of your digital world today. Visit the link in the description to download your free guide and unlock the power of access. Don't let a technical hiccup derail your path to success.

If you would like to connect with me, just visit my website, christinastubblefield. com.  Out with us. 

Sorry, I got some yakis going on.  

So, Christina has some good points there on the, uh, Um, the proper management of your website, your domain name, and just keeping that stuff operating at peak efficiency. So I think that's going to be a good, um, PDF to get, download that sucker. Cause if you have a website for your business or you don't have a website, number one, you need one.

Um, number two, if you have one, you got to manage that sucker. Yeah. 

We'll have that link in the description. And just click on it and get some good stuff from Miss Christina. Thank you, Christina. Thank you, girl. Gems. Why am I talking like a southern accent? Well, we are in Tennessee. 

This is true.  All right, so let's talk about the skills required in everyday work, right?

Yes.  And Justine mentioned the The role of the stay at home mom  or today's stay at home parent, right? Cause I think every, there doesn't matter. Some, somebody's staying at home sometimes. Yeah. Um, they're probably the best project managers. Um,  like  handling the whole beginning to end of a process out there.

Multitasking, multitasker, you know? So how do they qualify that if they want to get back into the. Work world. Yeah, and turn that into experience. 

A lot of people won't hire stay at home moms or moms that haven't worked in a while  But I do. It's like half of our team. 

Exactly. Probably some of the best hires.

Yeah, well, I'll tell you what you can do If you're a stay at home parent Document what you do. Yeah, write it down  Like document what you do on a daily basis is so that when you're ready to get back into the work world  This is what I do every day. Yeah, like your value that that that recruiter or or the business that you start like you Number one if you start if you document what you do every day and you start a business A lot of that stuff can transfer into your business.

Mm hmm, right a lot of that project management stuff I think project management is so important when running when opening and running a business That stuff transfers right over and you go if you're going to apply for a job  That's that's your essentially your resume  That just provides a whole lot of value for whoever's bringing you on.

I think that there are, and we kind of touched on this earlier, but there are, there are traits that a person needs to have to be successful in general. If you look at all the successful people, whether they went to college or didn't go to college, there are certain traits that all of these people have in common.

Time management, I think, is one. Understanding their value is another. Um, Networking the ability to communicate is another and so I think no matter what you do in life, whether you are a stay at home parent, whether you go to college, whether you start a business, whether you go to trade school, I think working on some of these essential skills because some of them will come naturally and some of them don't.

It depends on how you grew up and your personality. But I think working on some of these essential skills. I think working  Like some of the ones that I mentioned you guys can put some in the comments if you think that  if you can think of some that I didn't include that  Every person but no matter what you do is just good things being honest Honesty and having integrity is another one.

Yeah, I love it. Good budgeting managing your money. Well, oh, I 

was just I'm gonna upload a video later today that I was recording in my car  And, um, it was kind of a rant. Oh, yeah. And kind of touching on what you're saying as far as essential qualities, right?  Um, I help businesses with taxes, right? And, and all that stuff.

And,  um, uh, sometimes a business owner will come to me and just drop off a whole bunch of receipts.  And that's how they financially manage their business. 

But it's a like, it happens. Not 

to say any names or anything, but  

no, it's not her. But you know what, if for me, you know, and, and I don't, I'm not,  I'm going to say I'm not perfect when it comes to managing my business. Not at all. Cause I'm, I'm an accountant, bookkeeper slash person, and I'm probably the last person that I'm Does my books, right?

I try to help everybody else. And like three months later, I'm like, Oh, I got to do my books. 

It's like my husband, the electrician that owns an electrical business and half of the plugs don't work in our house.  

Exactly. So we're too busy helping everybody else that we forget about ourselves sometimes.

Right? Yeah. But when you're a business owner and you're not focusing on managing your finances, finances properly, like you don't take that serious. And when you're going to expect to get something from your business, you got to have to, you got to know Right. Right. Right. What that what your finances are and how how they look yeah, don't just live off 

your bank account.

No It's a very very very important personal and business that goes into budgeting. Yeah What are some other things you think we'll name a couple more you guys aren't putting any in the comments Um, and if they said those darn electricians, her husband's an electrician too, so she, she feels my pain. Um, what are some other qualities, even if we're not live anymore, y'all put them in the comments, that you think that people need in order to be successful, no matter what you do.

The willingness to learn. To always learn. Being humble, that's another one. Humility. Oh, 

yeah. Thick skin and strong shoulders.  

Keep on going. Um, what's that called when you just keep on going? Uh, determined. Determination.  Grit. Um, growth 

mindset versus fixed mindset. Yeah. Don't be stuck on one thing. Be willing to learn something new.

Be willing to pivot. 

Mm hmm. Uh, conflict management. Conflict management. We've talked about that on past podcasts. Yeah. Yeah, that's a good one.  

So essentially, how do you learn, where do you go to learn all of those skills? 

Thebusinessproject. com  

Exactly.  Exactly. That was a good plug, wasn't it? Yeah, it was 

so good. 

So I'm telling you, listen, this  The whole reason of us doing this is because we're sharing what you will learn on the businessproject. com.  Like we're talking about it in real life, but you, those skills, those essential skills you need to operate your business efficiently. You're going to, you're going to get that there and you're going to get the tools and resources to help you there. 

I love it. So, and it's a soft launch today. So go in and check it out, sign up and grow with us as we.  Build it, try to 

break it, let us know what you think. And just keep in mind, we got lots of cool things that we're adding to it over the next couple of weeks.  It's a cool 

videos. Cool. 

That's a good, I can add that as a list of things that you need to have is like, it's not perfect.

I could have been like, Nope, we're not launching today because it's not ready and it's not perfect. But I think too bad. We're going to take a step anyways.  We're gonna go before we're ready. 

Yeah, and then refine it. So you can, you can provide,  provide what you got. 

Doesn't have to be perfect in order to take a step forward.

Yeah. Cause that holds a lot of people back.  

That's cool, you know what? I love that you said that, so  be willing to take the step  and then  learn.  Right? You gotta step and then learn. Not necessarily learn and then step.  Step and then 

learn. Yeah. Step and then learn. Boom. That's great. That's your one takeaway for today.

We're going to leave with that. Step and then learn. Drop the mic. 

Yeah, I'm gonna drop that little mic right there. 

Got a little mic down there, too.  All right, cool. Well, we thank you guys so much for watching. Make sure we don't have any more comments before we go. Like and follow. Please. Hit the bell. Do all the things.

That really helps us  reach people. And please, we would love if you go over to www.  I think you have to add www because there's something not working there.  Thebusinessproject. 

com. www.  thebusinessproject. 

com. Yeah. Check it out. Give us your feedback. We'd love to hear from you guys.  We're done. Peace. Yeah.

Have a good rest of your  day.  Bye.